Tip 16: Make it easier for parents to get the help they need
Here at ParentSquare we have a lot of parents calling us, emailing us, chatting with us (even messaging our ParentSquare Learning Network Facebook group!), with questions like “When is Chromebook distribution?” and “How does my kid submit the English assignment?” Obviously, they need to contact their school, but they don’t know how.
More than ever before, parents need help. They have a lot of new tasks to do to support distance learning, and they have a lot of questions. Many don’t know where to go for answers. Here are several ideas for you from other schools that can make it easier for parents to get help.
Help Desk for Parents
The CEO of Distinctive Schools, which operates public charter schools in Chicago and Metro-Detroit, said in an online webinar, "Our IT department has basically become a family help desk."
At Miami-Dade County Public School, Marie Izquierdo, Chief Academic Officer, mentioned in a online panel that they'd set up a parent help line and it's been very useful.
Here are suggestions for how to set up your own help desk:
Create an email specifically for parent and student questions. For example: “remotelearning@[districtaddress]” or “help@[districtaddress]”
Enable a contact form within your school communication platform. (More information on how to do that within ParentSquare here.)
Use a service like Google Voice to set up a phone number that administrators or staff can monitor during working hours.
Set up Q&A sessions for parents. Here’s an example message about Q&A information sent out from Sandy Grade School.
Key Contact Directory
And while you’re at it, make it easy to figure out who parents should contact for what.
Tech issues? Here’s who you should contact. Questions about graduation? Here’s who you should contact. Wondering about online assignments? Here’s who you should contact.
Maybe you direct them all to the same help desk and then direct them to the appropriate person from there. Or maybe you set up a page that lays out parent resources, as Miami-Dade County Public Schools did:
Parent involvement and support is critical for the success of K-12 distance learning. Help parents help you, by creating easy ways for parents to ask their questions and get answers. Parents (and students) will thank you for it!
K-12 Remote Tips
We send out an email with each new remote communications tip for K12. Some examples use ParentSquare, but these tips will work with any comprehensive communications tool. Sign up to receive them straight in your inbox.
We’d love to know what you are doing — what great examples or ideas would you like to share with other schools? Simply comment below or submit your tip via our web form.